Barack Obama still needs all the help he can get

Last night in Denver, Barack Obama gave a strong, fighting speech that reassured an edgy Democratic Party that he is ready to trade blow for blow with John McCain, his Republican opponent. His tone of decorous pugnacity probably calmed those fearful that the party had saddled itself not just with a black presidential candidate but one who was turning out to be a high-minded wimp.

Obama's 45-minute speech before an 80,000 crowd in the Denver Broncos' football stadium, and a large national TV audience beyond, was competently designed to knock such doubts firmly on the head. In its wake Republicans howled that Obama had gone 'negative', evidence that his shots at Bush and McCain had drawn blood.

Even before his speech, heavy emphasis on the white portions of his ancestry in the

filmed bio preceding his address may have soothed the segment of Americans - unknown in its dimensions - at best deeply nervous at the prospect of an African-American couple taking up residence in the White House; at worst, adamantly opposed. The rhetorical undertow in all the introductory speeches was that in Obama is reborn the spirit of that earlier Illinois politician, Abraham Lincoln.

Only a few minutes into his speech, Obama was talking tough: pro forma homage to McCain's military heroism rapidly gave way to punchy jibes that he's a tired old retread of George Bush who just doesn’t get it. "I get it", Obama assured the cheering crowd. 'It', of course, is the rotten shape America is in, with jobs gone to China, troops needlessly slaughtered in Iraq, middle-class homes foreclosed and credit cards maxed out.

In answer to McCain's criticisms that his policies have been heavy on 'hope' but void of substance, Obama outlined his programme: a tax cut for "95 per cent of all working families" and a cut in capital gains